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<title>11 December, 2023</title>
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<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Virological characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 JN.1 variant</strong> -
<div>
The SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.86 lineage, first identified in August 2023, is phylogenetically distinct from the currently circulating SARS-CoV-2 Omicron XBB lineages, including EG.5.1 and HK.3. Comparing to XBB and BA.2, BA.2.86 carries more than 30 mutations in the spike (S) protein, indicating a high potential for immune evasion. BA.2.86 has evolved and its descendant, JN.1 (BA.2.86.1.1), emerged in late 2023. JN.1 harbors S:L455S and three mutations in non-S proteins. S:L455S is a hallmark mutation of JN.1: we have recently shown that HK.3 and other "FLip" variants carry S:L455F, which contributes to increased transmissibility and immune escape ability compared to the parental EG.5.1 variant. Here, we investigated the virological properties of JN.1.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.08.570782v1" target="_blank">Virological characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 JN.1 variant</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Distance to Vaccine Sites is Associated with Lower COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19 remains a leading cause of mortality in the U.S., despite widespread availability of vaccines. Conventional wisdom ties failure to vaccinate primarily to vaccine-skeptic beliefs (e.g., conspiracy theories, partisanship). Yet in this research, we find that vaccination is also hindered by travel distance to vaccine sites (a form of friction, or structural barriers). In study 1, Californians living farther from vaccine sites had lower vaccination rates, and this effect held regardless of partisanship. In study 2, Chicago zip codes saw an uptick in vaccination following vaccine site opening. These results proved robust in multiverse analyses accounting for a wide range of covariates, outcomes, and distance indicators. COVID-19 vaccination is hampered not just by vaccine hesitancy, but also structural barriers like distance. Efforts to boost vaccination could benefit from minimizing friction.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/mux5s/" target="_blank">Distance to Vaccine Sites is Associated with Lower COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with intestinal permeability, systemic inflammation, and microbial dysbiosis in hospitalized COVID-19 patients</strong> -
<div>
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and associated severity has been linked to uncontrolled inflammation and may be associated with changes in the microbiome of mucosal sites including the gastrointestinal tract and oral cavity. These sites play an important role in host-microbe homeostasis and disruption of epithelial barrier integrity during COVID-19 may potentially lead to exacerbated inflammation and immune dysfunction. Outcomes in COVID-19 are highly disparate, ranging from asymptomatic to fatal, and the impact of microbial dysbiosis on disease severity is unclear. Here, we obtained plasma, rectal swabs, oropharyngeal swabs, and nasal swabs from 86 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and 12 healthy volunteers. We performed 16S rRNA sequencing to characterize the microbial communities in the mucosal swabs and measured circulating cytokines, markers of gut barrier integrity, and fatty acids in the plasma samples. We compared these plasma concentrations and microbiomes between healthy volunteers and the COVID-19 patients who had survived or unfortunately died by the end of study enrollment, and between severe disease and healthy controls, as well as performed a correlation analysis between plasma variables and bacterial abundances. The rectal swabs of COVID-19 patients had reduced abundances of several commensal bacteria including Faecalibacterium prausnitsii, and an increased abundance of the opportunistic pathogens Eggerthella lenta and Hungatella hathewayi. Furthermore, the oral pathogen Scardovia wiggsiae was more abundant in the oropharyngeal swabs of COVID-19 patients who died. The abundance of both H. hathewayi and S. wiggsiae correlated with circulating inflammatory markers including IL-6, highlighting the possible role of the microbiome in COVID-19 severity, and providing potential therapeutic targets for managing COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.07.570670v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with intestinal permeability, systemic inflammation, and microbial dysbiosis in hospitalized COVID-19 patients</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Effects of remote work on population distribution across cities: US evidence from a QSE model</strong> -
<div>
This study investigates the impact of remote work adoption on the size and competitiveness of cities in the United States. As a contribution to the ongoing debate sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic, the research initially establishes city-specific upper-bound measures of potential remote work adoption, utilizing the share of employment in remotely-performable occupations for each city. Subsequently, it employs a Quantitative Spatial Economic model, incorporating shipping and commuting costs, to assess the counterfactual effects that these potential levels of remote work adoption would have on population distribution across US cities. Model predictions indicate that upon full remote-work adoption, only select highly productive cities would grow in size and productivity, tothe detriment of the majority of locations. Nevertheless, the emerging spatial equilibrium yields generalized welfare gains characterized by reduced markups in larger cities, extending even to shrinking cities through the pro-competitive effect of trade. The findings suggest a policy-relevant dual role of remote work, concurrently enhancing welfare while reinforcing agglomeration and inequality across cities.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/krnzq/" target="_blank">Effects of remote work on population distribution across cities: US evidence from a QSE model</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Prediction of mental well-being from individual characteristics and circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
The “Mental Health Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on NIMH Patients and Volunteers” study was a longitudinal study launched in spring 2020 by researchers at NIMH, to investigate the effect of the emerging COVID-19 pandemic on mental health. For each participant, the study collected personal characteristics, such as demographics, psychological traits, and clinical history, together with personal circumstances at regular intervals during their enrollment in the study. In this paper, we examine the degree to which a variety of mental health outcomes over time for an individual can be predicted from personal characteristics and their changing circumstances, using regression models trained on other study participants. We find that it is possible to predict the variation of a participant’s mental health outcomes from time point to time point, for most of the outcomes we consider. This capability is dominated by information about the primary outcome measures that were collected at the time of study enrollment but can be improved by considering personal characteristics and circumstances.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/7enqw/" target="_blank">Prediction of mental well-being from individual characteristics and circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Verification Theatre at Borders and in Pockets</strong> -
<div>
To appear in: Colleen M. Flood, Y.Y. Brandon Chen, Raywat Deonandan, Sam Halabi, and Sophie Thériault (eds.) Pandemics, Public Health, and the Regulation of Borders: Lessons from COVID-19 (Routledge, forthcoming). This version: August 2023. Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic saw the creation of a wide array of digital infrastructures, underpinning both digital and paper systems, for proving attributes such as vaccination, test results or recovery. These systems were hotly debated. Yet this debate often failed to connect their social, technical and legal aspects, focussing on one area to the exclusion of the others. In this paper, I seek to bring them together. I argue that fraud-free “vaccination certificate” systems were a technical and social pipe-dream, but one that was primarily advantageous to organisations wishing to establish and own infrastructure for future ambitions as verification platforms. Furthermore, attempts to include features to ostensibly reduce fraud had, and risks further, broader knock-on effects on local digital infrastructures around the world, particularly in countries with low IT capacities easily captured by large firms and de facto excluded from and by global standardisation processes. The paper further reflects on the role of privacy in these debates, and how privacy, and more specifically confidentiality, was misconstrued as a main design aim of these systems, when the main social problems could manifest even in a system built with state of the art privacy-enhancing technologies. The COVID-19 pandemic should sharpen our senses towards the importance of infrastructures, and more broadly, how to use technologies in societies in crises.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/h24uv/" target="_blank">Verification Theatre at Borders and in Pockets</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Bioethics</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of biosafety in the biomedical sciences. While it is often assumed that biosafety is purely technical matter that has little to do with philosophy or the humanities, biosafety raises important ethical issues that have not been adequately examined in the scientific or bioethics literature. This article reviews some pivotal events in the history of biosafety and biosecurity and explores three different biosafety topics that generate significant ethical concerns, i.e., risk assessment, risk management, and risk distribution. The article also discusses the role of democratic governance in the oversight of biosafety and offers some suggestions for incorporating bioethics into biosafety practice, education, and policy.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/cjf2u/" target="_blank">Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Bioethics</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>COVID-19 Lockdowns and Children’s Access to Justice: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis of Moroccan Family court filings</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 is a social disaster that has affected the operation of judicial systems globally. Access to justice is a vital right that ensures all other rights can be upheld. This study investigates how national lockdown affected the operation of family courts and children’s access to justice in Morocco. National lockdowns were enforced between March 21th and June 10th 2020 in response to the spread of coronavirus. The general closure of civil society was not extended to the judicial system and family courts were expected to continue operating and provide access to protection and justice. How well the court system mentioned to function under the constraints of stay-at-home orders is an open question. To investigate the impact of the national COVID-19 lockdown on family court systems and access to justice for children in Morocco this study used publicly available court filings (N= 77,335) pertaining to child abuse and neglect from 1st January 2020 to 30th December 2020 spanning the pre-lockdown, lockdown, and post-lockdown periods. Interrupted time series analysis was conducted to assess the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on court filing outcomes across different case types including penal, civil, complaints, and reports at the national, regional, and court level, controlling for time trends and regional fixed effects. National lockdowns were associated with decrease in cases filed and an increase in the percentages of cases with delays. Average case length differed by case type. Post-lockdown, case numbers recovered however there was large weekly variation likely due to rolling regional lockdowns. Evidence suggests that national lockdowns had a significant adverse impact on the judicial systems ability to provide access to justice for children.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/bf8vt/" target="_blank">COVID-19 Lockdowns and Children’s Access to Justice: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis of Moroccan Family court filings</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>From Viral Infections to Alzheimer’s Disease: Unveiling the Mechanistic Links Through Systems Bioinformatics</strong> -
<div>
Emerging evidence suggests that certain microorganisms, including viral infections, may contribute to the onset and/or progression of Alzheimer's Disease (AD), a neurodegenerative condition characterized by memory impairment and cognitive decline. However, the precise extent of their involvement and the underlying mechanisms through which specific viruses increase AD susceptibility risk remain elusive. We used an integrative systems bioinformatics approach to identity viral-mediated pathogenic mechanisms by which specific viral species, namely Herpes Simplex Virus 1 (HSV-1), Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV), Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), Kaposi Sarcoma-associated Herpesvirus (KSHV), Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), Influenza A virus (IAV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), could facilitate the pathogenesis of AD via virus-host protein-protein interactions (PPIs). We also sought to uncover potential synergistic pathogenic effects resulting from the reactivation of specific herpesviruses (HSV-1, HCMV and EBV) during acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, potentially increasing AD susceptibility. Our findings show that Herpesviridae Family members (HSV-1, EBV, KSHV, HCMV) impact AD-related processes like amyloid-beta formation, neuronal death, and autophagy. Hepatitis viruses (HBV, HCV) influence processes crucial for cellular homeostasis and dysfunction. Importantly, hepatitis viruses affect microglia activation via virus-host PPIs. Reactivation of HCMV during SARS-CoV-2 infection could potentially foster a lethal interplay of neurodegeneration, via synergistic pathogenic effects on AD-related processes like response to unfolded protein, regulation of autophagy, response to oxidative stress and amyloid-beta formation. Collectively, these findings underscore the complex link between viral infections and AD development. Perturbations in AD-related processes by viruses can arise from both shared and distinct mechanisms among viral species in different categories, potentially influencing variations in AD susceptibility.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.05.570187v1" target="_blank">From Viral Infections to Alzheimer’s Disease: Unveiling the Mechanistic Links Through Systems Bioinformatics</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>In Silico Therapeutic Intervention on Cytokine Storm in COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
The recent global COVID-19 outbreak, attributed by the World Health Organization to the rapid spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), underscores the need for an extensive exploration of virological intricacies, fundamental pathophysiology, and immune responses. This investigation is vital to unearth potential therapeutic avenues and preventive strategies. Our study delves into the intricate interaction between SARS-CoV-2 and the immune system, coupled with exploring therapeutic interventions to counteract dysfunctional immune responses like the 'cytokine storm' (CS), a driver of disease progression. Understanding these immunological dimensions informs the design of precise multiepitope-targeted peptide vaccines using advanced immunoinformatics and equips us with tools to confront the cytokine storm. Employing a control theory-based approach, we scrutinize the perturbed behavior of key proteins associated with cytokine storm during COVID-19 infection. Our findings support ACE2 activation as a potential drug target for CS control and confirm AT1R inhibition as an alternative strategy. Leveraging deep learning, we identify potential drugs to individually target ACE2 and AT1R, with Lomefloxacin and Fostamatinib emerging as standout options due to their close interaction with ACE2. Their stability within the protein-drug complex suggests superior efficacy among many drugs from our deep-learning analysis. Moreover, there is a significant scope for optimization in fine-tuning protein-drug interactions. Strong binding alone may not be the sole determining factor for potential drugs; precise adjustments are essential. The application of advanced computational power offers novel solutions, circumventing time-consuming lab work. In scenarios necessitating both ACE2 and AT1R targeting, optimal drug combinations can be derived from our analysis of drug-drug interactions, as detailed in the manuscript.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.05.570280v1" target="_blank">In Silico Therapeutic Intervention on Cytokine Storm in COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>COVID-19-related conspiracy beliefs and their relationship with perceived stress and pre-existing conspiracy beliefs in a Prolific Academic sample: A replication and extension of Georgiou et al. (2020)</strong> -
<div>
The authors reanalyzed the data and conducted a close replication of a study by Georgiou et al. (2020), who found amongst 660 (reported in abstract) or 640 (reported in participant section) participants that 1) COVID-19 related conspiracy theory beliefs were strongly related to broader conspiracy theory beliefs, that 2) COVID-19 related conspiracy beliefs were higher in those with lower levels of education, and that 3) COVID-19 related conspiracy beliefs were positively (although weakly) correlated with more negative attitudes towards different individual items measuring the government’s response. Finally, Georgiou et al. (2020) found that 4) COVID-19 beliefs were unrelated to self-reported stress. Reanalyzing their data and adjusting the analytical framework, the authors only found that an average of attitudes towards the appropriateness of the government response towards the pandemic was negatively related to conspiracy beliefs in general (not just COVID-19). In the present replication and extension study, random forest analyses show that attitude towards government responses (like the original study), stress (unlike the original study), and attachment avoidance towards the partner (unlike the original study) are the most important predictors of conspiracy beliefs. However, the explained variance of the whole random forest model (3.5-7.5%) was low and model fit of the presently and widely used conspiracy belief inventories was poor. Measurement error is a likely explanation for the differences between the original and replication study and independent development-validation studies therefore need to be conducted to better measure conspiracy beliefs.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/t62s7/" target="_blank">COVID-19-related conspiracy beliefs and their relationship with perceived stress and pre-existing conspiracy beliefs in a Prolific Academic sample: A replication and extension of Georgiou et al. (2020)</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Algorithm for selecting potential SARS-CoV-2 dominant variants based on POS-NT frequency</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19, currently prevalent worldwide, is caused by a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Similar to other RNA viruses, SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve through random mutations, creating numerous variants, such as Alpha, Beta, and Delta. It is, therefore, necessary to predict the mutations constituting the dominant variant before they are generated. This can be achieved by continuously monitoring the mutation trends and patterns. Hence, in the current study, we sought to design a dominant variant candidate (DVC) selection algorithm. To this end, we obtained COVID-19 sequence data from GISAID and extracted position-nucleotide (POS-NT) frequency ratio data by country and date through data preprocessing. We then defined the dominant dates for each variant in the USA and developed a frequency ratio prediction model for each POS-NT. Based on this model, we applied DVC criteria to develop the selection algorithm, verified for Delta and Omicron. Using Condition 3 as the DVC criterion, 69 and 102 DVC POS-NTs were identified for Delta and Omicron an average of 47 and 82 days before the dominant dates, respectively. Moreover, 13 and 44 Delta- and Omicron-defining POS-NTs were recognized 18 and 25 days before the dominant dates, respectively. We identified all DVC POS-NTs before the dominant dates, including soaring and gently increasing POS-NTs. Considering that we successfully defined all POS-NT mutations for Delta and Omicron, the DVC algorithm may represent a valuable tool for providing early predictions regarding future variants, helping improve global health.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.05.570216v1" target="_blank">Algorithm for selecting potential SARS-CoV-2 dominant variants based on POS-NT frequency</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Harmonizing Government Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Public health and safety measures (PHSM) made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have been singular, rapid, and profuse compared to the content, speed, and volume of normal policy-making. Not only can they have a profound effect on the spread of the virus, but they may also have multitudinous secondary effects, in both the social and natural worlds. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts by numerous research groups, existing data on COVID-19 PHSM only partially captures their full geographical scale and policy scope for any significant duration of time. This paper introduces our effort to harmonize data from the eight largest such efforts for policies made before September 21, 2021 into the taxonomy developed by the CoronaNet Research Project in order to respond to the need for comprehensive, high quality COVID-19 data. In doing so, we present a comprehensive comparative analysis of existing data from different COVID-19 PHSM datasets, introduce our novel methodology for harmonizing COVID-19 PHSM data, and provide a clear-eyed assessment of the pros and cons of our efforts.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/zb6yx/" target="_blank">Harmonizing Government Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 NSP5 Antagonizes MHC II Expression by Subverting Histone Deacetylase 2</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 interferes with antigen presentation by downregulating MHC II on antigen presenting cells, but the mechanism mediating this process is unelucidated. Herein, analysis of protein and gene expression in human antigen presenting cells reveals that MHC II is downregulated by the SARS-CoV-2 main protease, NSP5. This suppression of MHC II expression occurs via decreased expression of the MHC II regulatory protein CIITA. This downregulation of CIITA is independent of NSP5’s proteolytic activity, but rather, NSP5 delivers HDAC2 to IRF3 at an IRF binding site within the CIITA promoter. Here, HDAC2 deacetylates and inactivates the CIITA promoter. This loss of CIITA expression prevents further expression of MHC II, with this suppression alleviated by ectopic expression of CIITA or knockdown of HDAC2. These results identify a mechanism by which SARS-CoV-2 limits MHC II expression, thereby delaying or weakening the subsequent adaptive immune response. Importance: SARS-CoV-2 alters the expression of many immunoregulatory proteins to limit and delay the host antiviral response, thereby producing a more severe and longer-lasting infection. Preventing and limiting the activation of helper T cells by reducing MHC II expression on antigen presenting cells is one of these strategies, but while this mechanism was identified early in the pandemic, the mechanism allowing SARS-CoV-2 to limit MHC II expression has remained unclear. Herein, we demonstrate that this occurs via a tripartite interaction between viral NSP5 and host HDAC2 and IRF3, where a complex of NSP5 and HDAC2 is recruited to IRF3 bound to the promoter of CIITA - the master regulator of MHC II expression - with the delivery of HDAC2 then mediating the deacetylation of the CIITA promoter and the suppression of MHC II expression.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.10.528032v3" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 NSP5 Antagonizes MHC II Expression by Subverting Histone Deacetylase 2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Pretrainable Geometric Graph Neural Network for Antibody Affinity Maturation</strong> -
<div>
In the realm of antibody therapeutics development, increasing the binding affinity of an antibody to its target antigen is a crucial task. This paper presents GearBind, a pretrainable deep neural network designed to be effective for in silico affinity maturation. Leveraging multi-level geometric message passing alongside contrastive pretraining on protein structural data, GearBind capably models the complex interplay of atom-level interactions within protein complexes, surpassing previous state-of-the-art approaches on SKEMPI v2 in terms of Pearson correlation, mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE). In silico experiments elucidate that pretraining helps GearBind become sensitive to mutation-induced binding affinity changes and reflective of amino acid substitution tendency. Using an ensemble model based on pretrained GearBind, we successfully optimize the affinity of CR3022 to the spike (S) protein of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron strain. Our strategy yields a high success rate with up to 17-fold affinity increase. GearBind proves to be an effective tool in narrowing the search space for in vitro antibody affinity maturation, underscoring the utility of geometric deep learning and adept pre-training in macromolecule interaction modeling.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.10.552845v2" target="_blank">Pretrainable Geometric Graph Neural Network for Antibody Affinity Maturation</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ensitrelvir for Viral Persistence and Inflammation in People Experiencing Long COVID</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID; Post Acute Sequelae of COVID-19; Post-Acute COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Ensitrelvir; Other: Placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Timothy Henrich; Shionogi Inc. <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Low-intensity Aerobic Training Associated With Global Muscle Strengthening in Post-COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Procedure: muscle strengthening <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Centro Universitário Augusto Motta <br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Intravenous Immunoglobulin Replacement Therapy for Persistent COVID-19 in Patients With B-cell Impairment</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Immunoglobulins <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Jaehoon Ko <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effect of Inhaled Hydroxy Gas on Long COVID Symptoms</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Hydroxy gas <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Oxford Brookes University <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>PROmotion of COVID-19 BOOSTer VA(X)Ccination in the Emergency Department - PROBOOSTVAXED</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Vaccine Messaging; Behavioral: Vaccine Acceptance Question <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of California, San Francisco; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); Pfizer; Duke University; Baylor College of Medicine; Thomas Jefferson University <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Community Care Intervention to Decrease COVID-19 Vaccination Inequities</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Vaccination <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Community Health Worker Intervention to Enhance Vaccination Behavior (CHW-VB) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: RAND; Clinical Directors Network; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluating a Comprehensive Multimodal Outpatient Rehabilitation Program for PASC Program to Improve Functioning of Persons Suffering From Post-COVID Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute COVID-19; Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome; Post-Acute COVID-19 Infection; Long COVID; Long Covid19; Dyspnea; Orthostasis; Cognitive Impairment <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Comprehensive Rehabilitation; Other: Augmented Usual Care <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Pennsylvania; Medical College of Wisconsin; National Institutes of Health (NIH) <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Stem Cell Study for Long COVID-19 Neurological Symptoms</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: Stem Cell <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Charles Cox; CBR Systems, Inc. <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pursuing Reduction in Fatigue After COVID-19 Via Exercise and Rehabilitation (PREFACER): A Randomized Feasibility Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long-COVID; Long Covid19; Post-COVID-19 Syndrome; Post-COVID Syndrome; Fatigue <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: COVIDEx <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Lawson Health Research Institute; Western University <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Multilevel Intervention of COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Among Latinos</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Vaccine Hesitancy <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Multilevel Intervention <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: San Diego State University <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effect of Metformin in Reducing Fatigue in Long COVID in Adolescents</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Metformin; Other: Placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Trust for Vaccines and Immunization, Pakistan <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Randomized Trial Evaluating a mRNA VLP Vaccine’s Immunogenicity and Safety for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2 Infection <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: AZD9838; Biological: Licensed mRNA vaccine <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: AstraZeneca <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Outcomes of COVID-19 amongst patients with ongoing use of inhaled corticosteroids - a systematic review &amp; meta-analysis</strong> - CONCLUSION: ICS is associated with increased mortality and risk for hospitalization in patients with COVID-19 as compared to standard non-steroid-based COVID-19 therapy. It is crucial for healthcare providers to carefully evaluate the potential risks and benefits of ICS usage in the context of COVID-19 management to optimize patient outcomes and safety.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The relationship between the number of COVID-19 vaccines and infection with Omicron ACE2 inhibition at 18-months post initial vaccination in an adult cohort of Canadian paramedics</strong> - The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has rapidly evolved since late 2019, due to highly transmissible Omicron variants. While most Canadian paramedics have received COVID-19 vaccination, the optimal ongoing vaccination strategy is unclear. We investigated neutralizing antibody (NtAb) response against wild-type (WT) Wuhan Hu-1 and Omicron BA.4/5 lineages based on the number of doses and past SARS-CoV-2 infection, at 18 months post-initial vaccination…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The process through which nurses providing care to COVID-19 patients recognize professional growth: A Trajectory Equifinality Model</strong> - CONCLUSION: Managers and directors of nursing should provide appropriate support in each phase to help nurses recognize their professional growth during emerging epidemics.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Human spotted fever group Rickettsia seroprevalence and associated epidemiologic factors among diverse, marginalized populations in South Carolina</strong> - Illness caused by spotted fever group Rickettsia (SFGR) is increasing nationally, with affluent, white residents most likely to be diagnosed. The common under-representativeness of marginalized populations in research studies and these vulnerable populations’ health inequities make veritable epidemiologic risk factor profiling challenging, which inhibits equitable public health intervention. The current study leveraged 749 banked sera and associated surveys from a cross-sectional…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Danshensu inhibits SARS-CoV-2 by targeting its main protease as a specific covalent inhibitor and discovery of bifunctional compounds eliciting antiviral and anti-inflammatory activity</strong> - The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has posed a serious threat to human. Since there are still no effective treatment options against the new emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2, it is necessary to devote a continuous endeavor for more targeted drugs and the preparation for the next pandemic. Salvia miltiorrhiza and its active ingredients possess wide antiviral activities, including against SARS-CoV-2. Danshensu, as one of…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Exciting Advances in Sustainable Spectrophotometric Micro-Quantitation of an Innovative Painkiller “Tramadol and Celecoxib” Mixture in the Presence of Toxic Impurity, Promoting Greenness and Whiteness Studies</strong> - CONCLUSION: The methodologies developed were thoroughly validated in compliance with ICH guidelines. Student t and F-tests revealed no statistically substantial variation among the current methods and the reported method.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The possible role of nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2 activators in the management of Covid-19</strong> - COVID-19 is caused by a novel SARS-CoV-2 leading to pulmonary and extra-pulmonary manifestations due to oxidative stress (OS) development and hyperinflammation. COVID-19 is primarily asymptomatic though it may cause acute lung injury (ALI), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), systemic inflammation, and thrombotic events in severe cases. SARS-CoV-2-induced OS triggers the activation of different signaling pathways, which counterbalances this complication. One of these pathways is nuclear…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Generation and Characterization of Monoclonal Antibodies against Swine Acute Diarrhea Syndrome Coronavirus Spike Protein</strong> - Swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV), a member of the family Coronaviridae and the genus Alphacoronavirus, primarily affects piglets under 7 days old, causing symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting, and dehydration. It has the potential to infect human primary and passaged cells in vitro, indicating a potential risk of zoonotic transmission. In this study, we successfully generated and purified six monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) specifically targeting the spike protein of SADS-CoV,…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dual Effects of 3-<em>epi</em>-betulin from <em>Daphniphyllum glaucescens</em> in Suppressing SARS-CoV-2-Induced Inflammation and Inhibiting Virus Entry</strong> - The continuous emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants has led to a protracted global COVID-19 pandemic with significant impacts on public health and global economy. While there are currently available SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and therapeutics, most of the FDA-approved antiviral agents directly target viral proteins. However, inflammation is the initial immune pathogenesis induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection, there is still a need to find additional agents that can control the virus in the early stages of…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Discovery of Anti-Coronavirus Cinnamoyl Triterpenoids Isolated from <em>Hippophae rhamnoides</em> during a Screening of Halophytes from the North Sea and Channel Coasts in Northern France</strong> - The limited availability of antiviral therapy for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spurred the search for novel antiviral drugs. Here, we investigated the potential antiviral properties of plants adapted to high-salt environments collected in the north of France. Twenty-five crude methanolic extracts obtained from twenty-two plant species were evaluated for their cytotoxicity and antiviral effectiveness against coronaviruses HCoV-229E and SARS-CoV-2. Then, a…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Effect of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein RBD-Epitope on Immunometabolic State and Functional Performance of Cultured Primary Cardiomyocytes Subjected to Hypoxia and Reoxygenation</strong> - Cardio complications such as arrhythmias and myocardial damage are common in COVID-19 patients. SARS-CoV-2 interacts with the cardiovascular system primarily via the ACE2 receptor. Cardiomyocyte damage in SARS-CoV-2 infection may stem from inflammation, hypoxia-reoxygenation injury, and direct toxicity; however, the precise mechanisms are unclear. In this study, we simulated hypoxia-reoxygenation conditions commonly seen in SARS-CoV-2-infected patients and studied the impact of the SARS-CoV-2…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Thrombotic anti-PF4 immune disorders: HIT, VITT, and beyond</strong> - Antibodies against the chemokine platelet factor 4 (PF4) occur often, but only those that activate platelets induce severe prothrombotic disorders with associated thrombocytopenia. Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) is the prototypic anti-PF4 disorder, mediated by strong activation of platelets through their FcγIIa (immunoglobulin G [IgG]) receptors (FcγRIIa). Concomitant pancellular activation (monocytes, neutrophils, endothelium) triggers thromboinflammation with a high risk for venous and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Comparison of kits for SARS-CoV-2 extraction in liquid and passive samples</strong> - Effective extraction and detection of viral nucleic acids from sewage are fundamental components of a successful SARS-CoV-2 sewage surveillance program. As there is no standard method employed in sewage surveillance, understanding the performance of different extraction kits in the recovery of SARS-CoV-2 and the impact that PCR inhibitors have on quantification is essential to minimise data discrepancies caused by sample extraction. Three commercial nucleic acid extraction kits: RNeasy PowerSoil…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>New anti-SARS-CoV-2 aminoadamantane compounds as antiviral candidates for the treatment of COVID-19</strong> - Here, the antiviral activity of aminoadamantane derivatives were evaluated against SARS-CoV-2. The compounds exhibited low cytotoxicity to Vero, HEK293 and CALU-3 cells up to a concentration of 1,000 µM. The inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) of aminoadamantane was 39.71 µM in Vero CCL-81 cells and the derivatives showed significantly lower IC(50) values, especially for compounds 3F4 (0.32 µM), 3F5 (0.44 µM) and 3E10 (1.28 µM). Additionally, derivatives 3F5 and 3E10 statistically reduced the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pan-antiviral effects of a PIKfyve inhibitor on respiratory virus infection in human nasal epithelium and mice</strong> - Endocytosis, or internalization through endosomes, is a major cell entry mechanism used by respiratory viruses. Phosphoinositide 5-kinase (PIKfyve) is a critical enzyme for the synthesis of phosphatidylinositol (3, 5)biphosphate (PtdIns (3, 5)P2) and has been implicated in virus trafficking via the endocytic pathway. In fact, antiviral effects of PIKfyve inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 and Ebola have been reported, but there is little evidence regarding other respiratory viruses. In this study, we…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Hamas Used Sexual Violence on October 7th</strong> - Physicians for Human Rights Israel issued a report collecting evidence of sexual and gender-based violence. One of its authors lays out their findings. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-hamas-used-sexual-violence-on-october-7th">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Israel-Hamas Prisoner Swap, from the West Bank</strong> - Outside a prison where detained Palestinians were released, celebration and chaos. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-west-bank/the-israel-hamas-prisoner-swap">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Are We Sleepwalking Into Dictatorship?</strong> - Liz Cheney has not ceased ringing the alarm. She now contends that, if Trump wins back the White House in November, his election could be our last election. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/12/18/are-we-sleepwalking-into-dictatorship">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Looking for a Greener Way to Fly</strong> - The Treasury Department is about to announce tax credits for sustainable aviation fuel, which raises the question: What fuels are actually “sustainable”? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/looking-for-a-greener-way-to-fly">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In the Shadow of the Holocaust</strong> - How the politics of memory in Europe obscures what we see in Israel and Gaza today. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/in-the-shadow-of-the-holocaust">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>What makes a good cat?</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="An illustrated close-up of a proud cat with closed eyes in front of a green background." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ttnwBCfbjVrHtwvYa7YJEYfGf-c=/240x0:1680x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72951399/VOX_Cat_Illu_4.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Mary Kirkpatrick for Vox
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Maybe your cat loves you. Maybe it would kill you if it could.
</p>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1jLZNH">
I have absolutely no idea what makes Vincenzo a good cat. It’s a fact I keep to myself when I meet his owner, Donna Dzurishin, at the <a href="https://gardenstatecatexpo.com/">Garden State Cat Expo</a> in New Jersey in mid-July. At one of the biggest cat shows in the country, my ignorance puts me in the minority. Plus, Donna’s got that warm kind of energy that almost compels you to hug her — it’s not clear if you need it, she needs it, or maybe you both do. You definitely can’t hug Vincenzo or any of the cats competing. The first rule of the cat show is that you don’t touch the cats (unless you ask first, and, as I come to learn, are prepared to be turned down).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ROBWHA">
Vincenzo is a <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=solid+black+persian+cat&amp;sca_esv=577175651&amp;sxsrf=AM9HkKmzdyiQ5Yx3I4PrrUlkXJWFJ8ttWw%3A1698418883650&amp;ei=w9A7ZZCgJ_D8ptQPyfG98Ak&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjQjfWxv5aCAxVwvokEHcl4D54Q4dUDCBA&amp;uact=5&amp;oq=solid+black+persian+cat&amp;gs_lp=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&amp;sclient=gws-wiz-serp">solid black Persian</a> — a black cat dusted in gray, with a long fluffy tail and round copper eyes that are hard to make out amid all the fur. People sometimes tell Donna, who has long black hair, that they look alike. Her daughter makes fun of her for it. Vincenzo is an “absolutely beautiful boy,” per Donna, and her first show cat — they’ve only been competing since February. There’s been a learning curve in navigating the show circuit, not to mention Vincenzo’s high-maintenance grooming routine, which rivals that of a Kardashian. “I’m obsessive-compulsive, so I put everything into it,” Donna says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IzOGkR">
The idea that someone — let alone hundreds of people — would put their cat into a contest is foreign to me. I cannot fathom caring about ranking cats or undertaking the apparent effort being put in here. Why one cat might be “better” than the next is a mystery.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eQYUHV">
Donna describes what it is that makes Vincenzo special — his stocky body, his short legs, his nice round head. “Did you see him?” she asks. I don’t want to admit that the visual isn’t helping much in terms of my personal comprehension. Our conversation is cut short because the pair have been called to the ring. Donna pulls a nonplussed Vincenzo from his tent, fluffs him up as best she can, and hurries off. I wish her luck but then decide to follow — in the ring she’s headed to, Vincenzo is in the running for best cat, and I may as well see what happens.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QbwgHt">
As we walk over, Donna’s friend pulls me aside. She tells me Donna’s husband passed away recently, and cat shows have given her new life. The stakes suddenly feel high.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="QeSqiL"/>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RDBP4d">
I am not a cat person. Whenever friends ask why I don’t have one — after all, I am a single woman in her 30s — my response is always the same: There’s too big a risk your cat hates you. Cat owners’ stories are basically, “Oh my God, you won’t believe what Fluffy just did! So cute!” And then they tell you about something objectively destructive and, occasionally, gross. Even if your cat likes you, it’s sometimes distant and perhaps kind of an asshole — most cats are. It’s not a bad thing, really. (See: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumpy_Cat">Grumpy Cat</a>, a cultural icon.) They’re semi-wild animals we have as pets, which is a whole separate <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2023/4/11/23673393/pets-dogs-cats-animal-welfare-boredom">complicated issue</a> on its own. The main expectation you can have of a cat is that you can’t have a lot of expectations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FlACR4">
Cats are the ones that got themselves into this situation in the first place, historically speaking. They’ve been living with humans for 4,000 years, dating back to the ancient Egyptians, who deeply admired them, and <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-taming-of-the-cat/">probably even earlier</a>. (In the Middle Ages, <a href="https://www.wuwm.com/podcast/lake-effect-segments/2019-07-25/the-feline-states-of-america-how-cats-helped-shape-the-us">they were associated with witches and devilry</a>, so ancient times were probably a much better era to be a cat.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kjTmfe">
Unlike other pets, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-taming-of-the-cat/">cats are self-domesticated</a>, because humans — and their crops and grains and food — attract rodents. Cats figured out that where there are people, there are rats and mice, so they started hanging around. They came to America as furry little colonists, on ships.
</p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A hand holding a cat toy on a stick." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zl0iwehaJBfvA1qwFf19QcYSCuU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25132608/VOX_Cat_Illu_2.jpg"/>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fvyj5V">
Today, cats — along with dogs — are the most popular pets in the world. <a href="https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/reports-statistics/us-pet-ownership-statistics">According to</a> the American Veterinary Medical Association, there are some 58 million pet cats in the United States, and a quarter of American households have at least one cat. They have cemented themselves as our begrudging companions, here for the snacks and the safety.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rtH65e">
“The whole question of cats is less about the cat and more about the human. A cat is going to be a cat, and they’re very funny and affectionate,” says <a href="https://www.ellaceron.com/">Ella Cerón</a>, an author, friend, and owner of two black cats — Holly and Olive — when I tell her via text that I’m working on this story. “You as a person also have to understand that there are things in this life you cannot control, and one of those things is a cat.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yw0dq8">
What even makes a “good” cat? Do we want them to be loving? Aloof? Friendly? Beautiful? Strong? Or is the idea mainly for them to catch critters? Are they supposed to bend to our will, or are we supposed to bend to theirs?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PWHSMD">
I decided to go to a cat show to find out. A show cat is different from a pet cat, but as Mark Hannon, former president of the <a href="https://cfa.org/kids/breeds-and-colors/cfa-breeds/">Cat Fanciers’ Association</a>, tells me, “A good pet cat doesn’t necessarily make a show cat, but a show cat should also be a good pet cat.” So, I figure it’s a start.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="z00duv"/>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3kBqjQ">
I know what you might be thinking here. A cat show?? Everybody at the cat show knows you’re thinking that, too. They’ve all had to tell their friends and coworkers that their Saturday plan is to take their cat to a beauty pageant; they’ve gotten the looks. But cat shows are, indeed, a thing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7wifiJ">
The first recorded cat show <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-englands-first-cat-show-countered-victorian-snobbery-about-cats">took place</a> in 1871 in England, and cat shows landed in the United States <a href="https://cat-o-pedia.org/catalog-NationalCatShow.html">not much later</a>. The Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA), a nonprofit that licenses shows and governs their rules, was founded in 1906; its <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/cat-fanciers'-association-inc/">mission</a> is “to preserve and promote the pedigreed breeds of cats and to enhance the well-being of all cats.” It currently recognizes 46 breeds. Its rival, the International Cat Association (TICA), <a href="https://www.tica.org/resources/our-publications/rules-regulations/file/1506-standing-rules-version-e-6-nov-2023">recognizes 73</a>. There’s not even agreement about what type of cat counts.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rhAAMh">
What makes a good cat, show-wise, is quite cut and dried, at least in theory. Cats are intended to adhere to what everyone refers to as “the standard,” meaning an ideal version of the breed, as rated by a judge. Cat shows are a way to proofread cats. Breed councils set the standards and can change them by vote, including whether to allow for different colors or change requirements from “medium to large” to “large to medium.” This seems astonishingly mundane; I’m told the debate can be very heated.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YoTHEx">
The current CFA standards are outlined in a booklet that spans 132 pages. To insiders, it’s the cat bible. To outsiders, it’s a goofy, arbitrary document. Both the Birman and the Cornish Rex get points for having a “Roman nose.” For RagaMuffins and Ragdolls, that’s penalized. The only cat where temperament is listed as a criterion is the Siberian: It’s supposed to be “unchallenging.” The Chartreux is supposed to have a smile.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HJ2Iv7">
The cat show world is both big and small. If you wanted to hit up a show every weekend, <a href="https://cfa.org/event-calendar/">you could</a>, though you might have to travel far for it — there are shows all over the country and the globe. Yet, it’s a contained community. Competitors see the same people over and over; they get to know one another and make friends. They see the same judges, too, and if certain judges don’t like your cat, you’re in a pickle until you get a better cat. “Oh, everybody gets mad if you think your cat deserved to be up there and it’s not up there,” Hannon, the former CFA president, says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J5Pl26">
To judge a cat is to love a cat. When judges evaluate a cat, they hold them, caress them, whisper to them, coo at them, even kiss them. Becoming a cat judge takes years, with all the studying, training, and testing, and it’s not for the cash. Show organizers generally cover judges’ flights, hotels, and meals. Otherwise, judges make a dollar and a quarter per cat.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KPV2TA">
“We do it because we enjoy handling these cats,” says Nancy Dodds, a cat judge who flew in from Arizona for the weekend. “They’re like artwork.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Illustration of a cat rolling on its back on a background of cat show trophies, medals, and ribbons." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/aXB2HA8_C_34a3vkEMebJO4FtsU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25132600/VOX_Cat_Illu_1.jpg"/>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ym12LC">
Dodds puts on a bit of a show when she judges. She plays along when one of the cats gets frisky and sinks its claws into her table pole, refusing to let go. She spins one lackadaisical cat around on the table as it lies down and jokes about the heft of another, remarking, “I tell people I lift weights every weekend.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9RdrQu">
The vibe of a cat show can only be described as semi-managed chaos — I guess the phrase “like herding cats” exists for a reason. A muffled voice over a loudspeaker calls out for cats to report to their assigned ring, each with its own judge (there are multiple categories and multiple “best cats” per day). Their owners deposit them into numbered cages behind the judge and wait for them to be pulled out and appraised.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DQO5Ul">
There is no prize for best cat, just glory. Rankings are supposed to be objective and based on a points scale. “I don’t like to say we take points off, I like to say we put them all together, and the total is bigger than the sum of the parts because you can put all those parts together, and each point is worth something, and then you can have an ugly cat,” Dodds says. It sounds to me like dating: Someone can check all the boxes and still not be the right fit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nxISaC">
Judges really shouldn’t take into account a cat’s demeanor, but they’re only human, so it’s an inevitable consideration. Most people I speak to say that the highest-performing cats are the ones that (allegedly) want to be there. Peter Vanwonterghem, a judge who had flown in from Belgium, tells me, “You really see which cats feel comfortable on the table and which make an issue.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4QSq0O">
Not all cat conduct is tolerated. Another rule of the cat show is no biting allowed. Three strikes and you’re out, banned for life.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="qZX119"/>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xLwcOk">
Luckily for Donna, Vincenzo is not a biter, and he comes from a long line of good cats. The breeder Donna bought him from took a chance on her — you don’t hand out a show-quality cat to just anyone, let alone to someone who’s never shown before.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sZhPAY">
At its core, this isn’t really about winning. Donna’s husband died in February 2020 after a battle with cancer, and the loss left her deeply depressed. Vincenzo has been a blessing. Beyond competing in the shows, she’s made two close friends through her cats and cat show hobby, including the woman she considers her mentor. They met on <a href="https://www.vox.com/facebook">Facebook</a> when Donna posted a photo of her other Persian cat, Cupcake, on a page and asked for help with grooming — even a non-show Persian requires upkeep. “When I tell you I had her a mess, I had her a mess,” she says when we catch up on the phone a couple of months post-show.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pIAk7T">
While this has been a life-changer for Donna, she’s aware of how ridiculous it can sound. “I call him my son. People laugh at me. I say I love him like I gave birth to him myself,” she says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="utDqHZ">
She puts time into caring for Vincenzo every day, and on big days, the bathing and blow drying and brushing can take several hours. “It’s more baths than I take,” she quips of his bathing routine. There’s the sculpting of the face, which she’s just learning to do, including making sure his smile is right and, believe it or not, tending to his … eyebrows? … though she’s not sure that’s the correct terminology. Donna has spent thousands of dollars on Vincenzo, between the products and accessories and his multiple blow dryers. “To get the perfect show cat, they’re not inexpensive, I’ll tell you that,” Donna says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zELwUZ">
Vincenzo is indeed a fancy cat. Donna’s other cats, of which there are three, not so much.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6pWU2L">
She bought Cupcake as a therapy cat for her grandson during her husband’s illness. She isn’t show quality (there’s something wrong with her eyes). Then, her daughter wanted an Exotic Shorthair, so they got Lila, who failed out of a breeding program in Russia. (All three generations of Donna’s family live in the same house.) Lila is adorable, but she’s got a lot of issues — she has anxiety and a heart murmur. “Probably the best thing that happened to her is that she got here with us,” Donna says. Giovanni, also an Exotic Shorthair, was next, at Donna’s grandson’s Christmas request. He’s registered with the CFA, but he’s too skinny to show. Vincenzo is the last arrival, coming in December 2022. “I said to my family, ‘I’m doing something for myself,’” Donna says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1sMtpa">
She loves them all, but Vincenzo is her favorite.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="todeK6"/>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A drawing of a cat atop a pedestal." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2vN6XBfjjX6wq66tDdFo1RGVsok=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25132611/VOX_Cat_Illu_3.jpg"/>
</figure>
</div>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ThmJot">
Shows take a narrow view of what a cat should be — the whole shebang is pretty much looks. But what about cats as pets or just as living beings with which we coexist? How would one even begin to set real-world standards for a cat? What do we get out of our relationships with them?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MWD9NX">
Many people consider their cats to be members of their families, their kids. They often say their pets help them with stress and loneliness, though problems and anxieties can arise with pets, too.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AsYIQD">
<a href="https://www.colorado.edu/sociology/jessica-austin">Jessica Austin</a>, a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder who studies the dynamic between people and cats, explains that cat owners like having a relationship with a being that is fairly independent and content to be on its own. “They see the cats as having their own interests, having their own needs, having their own desires, and that’s fine,” she says. “If you are a person who needs validation from your pet, maybe a cat is not the best pet for you.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hMW8zt">
Cats provide a quiet kind of companionship. Austin quoted one of her research subjects — a cat dad — on their unique appeal: “It’s somebody who is content being alone together.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ePabzT">
Societally, cats can be misunderstood. You often hear people say they are uncomfortable around cats or that they flat-out don’t like them. That’s for a multitude of reasons, experts say — they’re wilder, they’re more skeptical and standoffish. And, to put it plainly, they are not dogs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SlmQYZ">
“It’s basically what I call looking at cats through dog-colored glasses, so in that respect, cats are failed dogs, you know? We hold up this ideal,” says <a href="https://www.jacksongalaxy.com/">Jackson Galaxy</a>, a cat whisperer, television host, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCheL-cUqfzUB8dfM_rFOfDQ">YouTuber</a>, in an interview.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aIhXaP">
We’ve got a sense of what makes a good dog. It’s a loyal companion. It loves you unconditionally. Maybe it has a job, like hunting, herding, or being a cop. Even if it doesn’t, it probably knows a trick or two. With cats, it’s fuzzier.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="reeESO">
Cats aren’t here to serve us; the relationship is more of a push and pull. They require boundaries. They are an exercise in consent.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ic9Lvz">
“They’re still primarily predatory, they’re also a prey animal,” says <a href="https://mikeldelgado.com/">Mikel Delgado</a>, a scientist and cat expert. They have a need for safety and comfort in new environments, and we often don’t recognize that. “We are looking at our companion animals through a very human lens, and we don’t really think about how they experience the world.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zbg865">
When a cat is dissatisfied, owners will know it, and its surroundings are often at fault. If you’ve got a “bad” cat, the bad is on you — your cat is scratching the couch because it doesn’t have anywhere else to scratch. Cats are not as eager to make people happy in the way dogs are, nor are they as motivated by food. People can only give them so many treats before they’re over it. “We are responsible for their emotional well-being, but they’re not responsible for ours,” Delgado says.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="szIcxT"/>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1vQEXq">
Back at the Garden State cat show, I have abandoned all journalistic integrity and am firmly Team Vincenzo. I’ve followed him and Donna to the ring where they’re naming best cat.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fTAJ3N">
There are 10 finalists in cages behind the judge. She pulls each out in descending order, Miss America style, talks about their attributes, and compliments them before she returns them and places a ribbon on their holding spot.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xy7rCk">
Tenth best cat is named, then ninth, then eighth, and so on, and Vincenzo still hasn’t been called. The tension builds. With two cats left, the judge pulls Vincenzo from his cage. Team V breathes out a sigh — second isn’t bad. But then, when the judge puts him back, she doesn’t hand out a ribbon to indicate his placing. Vincenzo is still in the running! She then takes out the other cat, a white Persian, his competition.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3gp2w8">
It’s Vincenzo, the black poof, versus his unnamed opponent, the white poof. The judge says that both are, in reality, the best cat and asks the audience to clap for their favorite. It sounds like Vincenzo gets less applause, but it’s hard to tell. Whatever the case, Vincenzo wins. He is named best cat. Donna cries. Her friend cries. If I’m being honest here, I almost cry a little bit, too.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NTQvqK">
“I’m ecstatic. I was very nervous. This is a hard competition here,” a still-emotional Donna tells me in what amounts to a post-game interview. Vincenzo has won best cat before, but not at a show as big as this one.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M50Af6">
The stakes in life don’t always have to be high for them to feel like it. Joy comes from truly unexpected places. And if it’s a cat — because it’s your reluctant pet, your show animal, or whatever else — so be it.
</p></li>
<li><strong>In American Fiction, a Black writer who “doesn’t see race” pens a race novel</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A middle-aged bald Black man in glasses and a wrinkled white dress shirt stands in front of a beach house. He is looking out at the street with confusion and worry on his face." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-IeUxl4Ns20AVa_0FT-0N9FA7FY=/11x0:4011x3000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72951374/american_fiction_F_03452_R_rgb.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Jeffrey Wright as Monk in <em>American Fiction.</em> | Claire Folger © 2023 Orion Releasing LLC
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Jeffrey Wright gives a career-crowning performance in this wry and surprisingly warm-hearted race satire.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tg7ROb">
Early on in <em>American Fiction</em>, a deceptively biting and warmly funny new satire, a writer (played by Jeffrey Wright in a career-crowning performance) sneaks into a book fair event celebrating the hot new book of the season. His eyebrows arch at the title: <em>We’s Lives in Da Ghetto</em>.<em> </em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SwXMcO">
Wright’s character, Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, is a biased observer. His last few books have flopped, hard, and he’s having trouble selling his most recent novel to anyone. His erudite, classically inflected books are unfashionable in an industry craving the next <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/1/22/21075629/american-dirt-controversy-explained-jeanine-cummins-oprah-flatiron"><em>American Dirt</em></a>, minus the scandal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AsXaTK">
Monk, who grew up in a wealthy family of doctors, says he doesn’t see race. His critics still want him to write “Blacker” books. What, they demand, does his reworking of Aeschylus’s <em>The Persians</em> have to do with the African American experience?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jLy2nY">
Ready and willing to give the critics what they want is Sinatra Golden (a terrific Issa Rae), a former publishing assistant who tells her audience that she wrote <em>We’s Lives in Da Ghetto</em> because representation matters. Monk thinks Sinatra’s work is craven and phony, playing into the worst stereotypes about Black life. Still, he can’t deny it makes money.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kvpZPR">
So one night, giggly with whiskey and in need of funds to care for his ailing mother, Monk sits down at his laptop and types out a book full of all the tropes he says he hates and he knows white people love: a story of drugs, deadbeat fathers, and gang shootings, written in tortured <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/black-english-matters/">AAVE</a>. He titles it <em>My Pafology</em> and submits it to his agent as performance art.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="HFOLzt">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EkfgTU">
<em>My Pafology</em> sells immediately, of course, for more money than any of Monk’s “real” books did. Which means in order to get access to the money he needs, Monk finds himself in disguise as a debut author and wanted fugitive going by the alias Stagg R. Leigh. Blinking without his owlish professorial glasses, Monk tries his best to deadpan his way through meetings with oily industry types who fall all over themselves to assure him that his book is deeply, deeply important — even when he demands they change the title to <em>Fuck</em>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ksGWcI">
<em>American Fiction</em> is based on Percival Everett’s novel <em>Erasure</em>, written in 2001, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/apr/19/featuresreviews.guardianreview13">which critics read at the time</a> as an extended satire on Sapphire and her mega-bestseller of Black trauma, <em>Push</em>. Now, 22 years later, publishing is still so infatuated with sentimental stories of the hard lives of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_the_Crawdads_Sing">poor people</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Little_Life">queer people</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/1/22/21075629/american-dirt-controversy-explained-jeanine-cummins-oprah-flatiron">people of color</a> that the only part of Monk’s dark joke that rings false is the AAVE. Today’s trauma narratives are generally written lyrically.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LCnKP3">
Debut director Cord Jefferson handles the satire of this premise with a feather-light touch. In Jefferson’s hands, it’s clear that Monk has a point when he rails about the blind spots of the publishing industry. It’s also clear that Monk is smug and self-righteous, a bit of a bore. Even his agent rolls his eyes at Monk’s rants.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="swOzhD">
Despite his grumpy contrarianism, Monk is an intensely lovable character. In part, that’s thanks to Wright’s gleeful, nuanced performance; in part, it’s because Jefferson shows us all of who Monk is.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nwLPhO">
As the film opens, Monk is returning to his family home in Boston on a forced leave of absence from his West Coast university job. At home, Monk curves his broad shoulders in and lightens the register of his plummy voice. He’s the nerd, the egghead who never made it as a doctor like his siblings did, the contrarian who’s not really sure how to keep in touch with his family and so pretends he doesn’t want to.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o6cZoH">
Still, when Monk sits down with his siblings (Tracee Ellis Ross, warm and acerbic, and Sterling K. Brown in a live-wire performance), you can see him reaching unsteadily for a half-remembered connection. When he begins to court his neighbor Coraline (the luminous Erika Alexander), he does so with a beautiful hesitancy, as though he’s forgotten the concept of flirting.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pnOUV2">
What makes Monk feel most human, though, is how willfully he deceives himself. He is blind to his father’s infidelities and his siblings’ personal problems. He pretends <em>My Pafology</em> is nothing but a joke, but it’s in this book, the one he considers to be most disposable and absurd, that he embeds his real feelings of rage and betrayal about his father.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NYKqUO">
In the film’s strongest scene, Monk confronts Sinatra about <em>We’s Lives in Da Ghetto</em>. He asks her if she isn’t ashamed to have written something so fake and trashy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vfjJRg">
Sinatra demurs. She based her book on hours of research, she tells him. Some of the narrative is drawn directly from her interview transcripts. And anyway, she says, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with giving the market what it wants.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3FDmQ3">
Monk’s smug certainty falters. It’s crucial for his worldview, for the nihilistic joke of <em>My Pafology</em>, for everything that he’s doing, that he’s able to see Sinatra as a hack. If it turns out that she’s just as savvy and intelligent as he is — well, what does he do then?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VJNnBc">
It’s a predicament that is, like Monk himself, what Coraline calls “funny. Sad funny.” Exactly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qQWy0O">
American Fiction<em> will appear in select theaters December 15 and expand December 22</em>.
</p></li>
<li><strong>The severe El Niño in South America is a preview of a climate-changed world</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="An illustration of heavy rainfall overwhelming a street in a Bolivian town." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Z6xeJucsNDL76ZbJTk0bOAnpojg=/240x0:1680x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72951323/El_Nin_o.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Karlotta Freier for Vox
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</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Dengue, drought, and floods are hammering Peru and Bolivia this year. At the UN climate talks, they’re seeking justice.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cODKge">
<em>This story is part of </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/11/27/23959446/cop28-united-nations-climate-crisis"><em><strong>a Vox series</strong></em></a><em> examining how the climate crisis is impacting communities around the world, as the 28th annual United Nations conference on climate change (COP28) unfolds.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zKXtLL">
For centuries, off the coast of what’s now Peru and Ecuador, fishers noticed that every few years, around Christmas, the <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/ElNino/page3.php">sea surface warmed up</a>.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ofBufj">
Ordinarily, a chilly swirl of currents would churn up nutrients that feed wildlife near the surface, yielding a bountiful catch. The arrival of warm water slowed the currents, and thus slowed the <a href="https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/how-climate-works/ocean-upwelling">upwelling of phosphorus and nitrogen</a> from deep in the ocean that normally fed plankton that in turn fed fish. As a result, the fishermen would often <a href="https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/how-climate-works/el-nino-fish-tale">return home with empty nets</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OauFzr">
Spanish settlers later dubbed this phenomenon “<a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/23738846/el-nino-2023-weather-heat-wave-climate-change-disaster-flood-rain">El Niño</a>,” the boy, a reference to the Christmastime birth of Jesus.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DboXnK">
Since then, scientists have learned that what fishers observed is actually a powerful mechanism that ripples all the way across the Pacific Ocean and reshapes weather around the world. And as average temperatures have risen thanks to human-caused <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate">climate change</a>, they’ve <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/has-climate-change-already-affected-enso">amplified El Niño’s disruption</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HRL7Et">
This year, the combination of a powerful El Niño and<a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/broken-record-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide-levels-jump-again"> record-high levels of carbon dioxide</a> in the atmosphere has warmed the planet to the hottest levels humans have ever measured.
</p>
<aside id="Ag18vt">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aHzyGv">
It may also be the first time global average temperatures rise <a href="https://www.vox.com/23969523/climate-change-cop28-paris-1-5-c-uae-2023-record-warm">1.5 degrees Celsius</a>, 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, above average temperatures before the Industrial Revolution and all the <a href="https://www.vox.com/fossil-fuels">fossil fuel</a> burning that ensued. The <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement">2015 Paris climate agreement</a> set a goal of holding average temperature increases to less than 1.5°C. A single year rising above this line doesn’t mean that the average has shifted yet, but it provides an example of what the world will look like when an extreme year like 2023 becomes typical.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IiJxXt">
While El Niño is a phenomenon independent of climate change, its increasing ferocity has created a preview of life on the planet as temperatures continue to rise. “The impacts of El Niño look a lot like what the impacts of climate change are going to be,” said <a href="https://profiles.stanford.edu/326897">Christopher Callahan</a>, an earth science researcher at Stanford University.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hFYq8Y">
Some of El Niño’s most acute consequences are in the places closest to where it was first documented. The Andean region, a towering mountain ridge running down South America’s Pacific coast, forms a microcosm of the planet as a whole, from its beaches to its peaks, its deserts to its rainforests. During El Niño years, countries like Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia — together home to more than 110 million people — suffer from strengthened heat waves, drought, and heavy rains. And this year is already leaving scars.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Residents of the hillside neighbourhoods of Potosi, Bolivia receive water from a tanker truck that supplies them once a week, as the region is being affected by a severe drought, on November 7, 2023." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/OJ4audoz4pLpeEX0Nelgg93NvBI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25143282/GettyImages_1769225203.jpeg"/> <cite>Aizar Raldes/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Some Bolivian communities are receiving weekly water deliveries after a severe drought this year dried up local supplies.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PkTZRn">
The region has already experienced an <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/winter-heat-wave-sends-peruvians-flocking-beach-2023-08-07/">unusually warm Southern Hemisphere winter</a> with <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/lake-titicaca-drying-up-heat-wave-turns-winter-upside-down-2023-08-04/">intense heat waves</a> that left inland lakes near record-low water levels. That’s on top of six decades and counting of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/23/climate/peru-glaciers-melt-water-climate-intl/index.html">glacier retreat</a> in the Andes mountains, threatening the long-term water supply for countries like Peru. The Andean region has also seen <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/12/peru-six-dead-as-powerful-cyclone-causes-major-flooding">heavy rains</a> and <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/peru/peru-flooding-situation-report-no-07-13-june-2023">deadly floods</a> in 2023. The severe weather has damaged farms and is accelerating a migration from rural to urban areas in several South American countries. Now summer is setting in, and more weather extremes are looming.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kwoGPI">
The current El Niño is poised to be costly. Peru’s government is expecting to spend more than <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/peru-spend-more-than-1-bln-climate-plan-mitigate-el-nio-2023-03-24/">$1 billion</a> to cope with the extremes this year stemming from the severe weather this year and ongoing climate change impacts — a huge sum for a country with a <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?locations=PE">gross domestic product of $242 billion</a>, nearly a hundred times smaller than that of the US. At the United Nations, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte this year proposed creating a new <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/peru-president-proposes-international-pact-combat-el-nino-effects-2023-09-20/">international pact</a> just to deal with El Niño’s devastation.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="6irqGW">
<q>The Andean region faces some of the most severe consequences from climate change, but the hardships for its people and economies will reverberate across the globe</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x5PIfM">
Now negotiators from the Andean region are meeting their counterparts from around the world at COP28, the annual United Nations climate summit, held in the United Arab Emirates this year, to hash out the next steps for action on climate change. One of the highest priorities for countries like Peru and Ecuador is to secure more funding to cope with the climate change damage already underway, as well as the greater toll that lies ahead. The United Nations this year estimated that it will cost about <a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/adaptation-gap-report-2023">$387 billion per year</a> for developing countries to adapt to climate change. It’s a tough ask at a time when many countries, rich and poor, are reeling from their own economic woes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DF6zCH">
Yet already the goal of keeping warming below 1.5°C on average is almost out of reach, and global greenhouse gas emissions are still rising. “We’re getting closer and closer to the point where we are not going to meet our targets,” said <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/experts/shaun-martin">Shaun Martin</a>, vice president for climate change adaptation at World Wildlife Fund US.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SmE1lX">
Like El Niño itself, the Andean region faces some of the most severe consequences from climate change, but the hardships for its people and economies will reverberate across the globe.
</p>
<aside id="lzYJAR">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<h3 id="4ZvGgs">
How climate change and El Niño are converging in South America this year
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SgRhSG">
Hot water at the surface of the Pacific Ocean during an El Niño year ripples below the sea and into the sky, as warm water leads to more evaporation, which in turn causes more rainfall. In South America, the Andes mountains channel that moisture so that some areas get a lot more precipitation, while others get much less. But subregions like the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-023-00409-z">Peruvian Andes</a> can experience both extremes in a season, a brutal whiplash from floods to drought, making it extraordinarily difficult for residents to adapt.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tiPCb9">
“It’s hitting both sides of the Andes, in the <a href="https://www.vox.com/amazon">Amazon</a> and on the coast,” Martin said. The Amazon river, which has its source in Peru, is suffering from a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/impact-amazons-climate-driven-drought-may-last-until-2026-2023-12-02/">severe drought</a> this year. Alongside extreme heat, the weather has contributed to wildlife deaths, including dozens of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/04/us/amazon-river-dolphins-dead-heat-drought.html">Amazon river dolphins</a>. The dry weather also left the Pantanal wetlands just south of the Amazon rainforest <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/jaguar-haven-in-brazils-pantanal-burns-amid-new-normal-of-wildfires/">primed to burn</a>. Fires ignited by lightning charred critical wetlands for jaguars.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Aerial view of the San Ildefonso dam that supplies water to some neighbourhoods of the city of Potosi, Bolivia, affected by an extreme drought on November 6, 2023." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gVOTIGYNLKyzYeK0dlN7ZgTlb6k=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25143292/GettyImages_1767727029.jpeg"/> <cite>William Wroblewski/ AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
The San Ildefonso dam in Bolivia sits at 8 percent of its capacity as a severe drought persists this year across parts of the country.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="njp58T">
South America’s Pacific coast, meanwhile, is poised to receive intense rain as well as more <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-analysis-finds-strong-el-nino-could-bring-extra-floods-this-winter">flooding from high tides</a> through the end of the year. The high water levels are likely to wash out roads, bridges, and other pieces of low-lying infrastructure. And in the coming years, rising average temperatures will continue to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-023-00409-z">amplify these extremes</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kVrIjx">
For people living in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Colombia, this year’s El Niño is occurring on top of <a href="https://unfccc.int/news/new-report-details-dire-climate-impacts-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean">years of shifting temperature and precipitation baselines</a>. And the effects of severe heat and drought are particularly strong on children. “They are affected in going to school because of the high temperatures. Sometimes they have to walk many hours to reach their school,” said <a href="https://www.savethechildren.org/us/about-us/media-and-news/2023-press-releases/bolivia-hotte">Marianela Montes de Oca</a>, country director for Save the Children in Bolivia. “It’s starting to affect children with gastrointestinal infections because of the lack of water.” As wells, ponds, and cisterns dry out, children can end up drinking from contaminated sources.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oSTOpP">
These changes are making it harder for subsistence farmers to survive as losses mount due to weather extremes, leading many to move away from rural areas toward cities. In countries like Bolivia, that migration presents social challenges. Much of the rural population is Indigenous and speaks languages like Quechua or Aymara, so it’s harder for them to integrate in cities where Spanish is far more common, limiting access to jobs, housing, and health care.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yjKCcm">
Bolivia has been a bright spot in global development, <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=BO">growing its economy</a> and making advances in key development indicators like <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SPDYNIMRTINBOL">reducing infant mortality</a> and <a href="https://www.elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/002/2021/180/article-A001-en.xml">poverty</a>. Bolivia has an extreme poverty rate of <a href="https://databankfiles.worldbank.org/public/ddpext_download/poverty/987B9C90-CB9F-4D93-AE8C-750588BF00QA/current/Global_POVEQ_BOL.pdf">11.1 percent</a> based on the most recent assessments from the World Bank. The Bolivian government set a goal of ending it entirely by 2025. But according to the United Nations <a href="https://www.wfp.org/countries/bolivia-plurinational-state">World Food Programme</a>, climate change is threatening to undo some of this progress. Unless the pace of warming decreases, Bolivia is poised to see a 22 percent increase in food insecurity by the 2050s. This year’s El Niño provides a stark example of conditions that could become more frequent as <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/brazil-temperature-peru-bolivia-heatwave-b2418711.html">record-breaking temperatures</a> triggered drought emergency declarations across <a href="https://www.savethechildren.org/us/about-us/media-and-news/2023-press-releases/bolivia-hottest-winter-on-record">20 percent of the country</a>, threatening thousands of acres of farmland.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nOMhq9">
Peru has also been getting hammered by extreme weather this year. Heavy rains since January <a href="https://reliefweb.int/disaster/fl-2023-000036">killed at least 77 people</a>, made almost 50,000 homes uninhabitable, and left more than 800,000 people in need of government assistance, about 30 percent of them children. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/i-lost-everything-cyclone-yaku-unleashes-destruction-peru-2023-03-13/">Cyclone Yaku</a> in March triggered floods and mudslides, wiping out the entire rice crop for some farmers.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A group of people wade across a street arm-in-arm through a mudslide caused by heavy rains from Cyclone Yaku in the Chosica district on March 18, 2023." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/uDOQ007mR80d4J8NLvWdKQsFjZ8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25143261/GettyImages_1248591607.jpeg"/> <cite>Klebher Vasquez/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Cyclone Yaku caused extensive flooding throughout Peru in March.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vcsYGT">
The weather this year is also harming <a href="https://www.vox.com/public-health">public health</a>, even in areas that didn’t directly experience torrential downpours or searing temperatures. Because of their altitude, most major Peruvian cities have historically had very few mosquitos. But with rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns, mosquitos are climbing further up, and so are the diseases they carry. “El Niño always comes associated with dengue outbreaks,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-allemant-salas-b63b9741/?originalSubdomain=pe">Melissa Allemant Salas</a>, humanitarian response leader for Save the Children Peru.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8440or">
The <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/06/21/1183490107/peru-is-reeling-from-record-case-counts-of-dengue-fever-whats-driving-the-outbre">spread of dengue in Peru</a> has already exceeded the outbreak in 2017, during the last big El Niño. According to the <a href="https://www3.paho.org/data/index.php/es/temas/indicadores-dengue/dengue-nacional/9-dengue-pais-ano.html">Pan American Health Organization</a>, the Andean region as a whole has seen 550,000 cases of dengue and 640 deaths from the infection this year. Peru accounts for more than 270,000 cases and 448 deaths, including 47 children — an “outrageous number,” Allemant Salas said, for a disease that under normal conditions should be easily controllable.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ANa2EY">
This all adds up to a tremendous economic toll. Stanford’s Callahan co-authored a study in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2983"><em>Science</em></a> this year looking at the dollar values of damages from past El Niño events. The El Niño in 1997-98, one of the most severe on record prior to 2023, led to $5.7 trillion in income losses around the world. But the toll was concentrated in tropical countries like Peru that experienced the biggest weather perturbations. Five years after that El Niño, economic growth in Peru declined by 6.2 percentage points. The income for the average Peruvian would have been $1,246 greater in 2003 had the 1997-98 El Niño not occurred, the authors calculated.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A child works in a crop field at a community in Huancayo, Junin Region, in the mountains in central Peru on November 14, 2023. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ir6QxTQx_vAH40bKa3ZGycWuz9M=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25143335/GettyImages_1825458764.jpeg"/> <cite>Hugo Curotto/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A child works on a farm in Peru afflicted by severe drought this year as El Niño raises temperatures across the region and the world.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8rrTkV">
Callahan explained that the lingering economic costs of El Niño are not just due to things like repairing bridges and providing medical care to people afflicted in the immediate wake of these events, but often due to a long-term shift in priorities in places that experience these disasters. Rather than building schools or investing in research, money goes toward seawalls, drainage systems, and relocating people. “The underlying [investments in the] most productive drivers of economic growth — the drivers of productivity and technology — get diverted toward disaster response and recovery,” Callahan said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="txSxNl">
It may take months or years to calculate the price tag of the current El Niño, but the scale of the havoc it has already wrought means it’s likely to become the most costly one on record. Scientists are also rushing to figure out how future changes in the climate will <a href="https://research.noaa.gov/2020/11/09/new-research-volume-explores-future-of-enso-under-influence-of-climate-change/">blend into El Niño events</a>, but growing populations, particularly in coastal regions vulnerable to storms and rising seas, will put more people in harm’s way, raising the expected damage toll.
</p>
<h3 id="6c8PnX">
South America is adapting, but countries need help to endure the changes ahead
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lthADP">
There are solutions to many of these problems stemming from El Niño and climate change. The main strategy is anticipating threats rather than just responding to them. Over the long term, the goal is to reduce overall risk by incorporating models of future warming into current land, development, and disaster plans.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wwswle">
“It’s much easier to build a drainage system when you’re building a city than to have to retrofit it,” said <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/team/david-sislen">David Sislen</a>, who leads disaster risk management for Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Bank. “For every dollar invested in risk reduction, you save four dollars in economic impacts.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i3v0jc">
In October, the World Bank gave Peru a <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2023/10/26/world-bank-supports-climate-action-and-economic-recovery-in-peru">$750 million loan</a> to help the country adapt to climate change, including tactics like more resilient urban planning, accounting for changes in demographics and flooding risk. There is also work underway to deploy <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/23886118/climate-change-disaster-warning-hurricane-maria-dominica-caribbean">early warning systems</a> that could offer more time to prepare ahead of a severe weather event, saving lives and property. These systems could, for example, facilitate evacuations, help governments allocate relief supplies before a flash flood cuts off a remote village, or implement sanitation procedures and deploy mobile hand-washing stations when infection risks are high.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S18Ab2">
The challenge is not just protecting physical infrastructure but keeping networks of first responders, local governments, and funding agencies running after a major storm. “Making sure that the public sector continues functioning even when you’ve had a big event is a huge piece of the puzzle,” Sislen said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1jgB5C">
The core problem, though, is that countries like Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru are among those that produced the fewest greenhouse gas emissions that are driving global warming, but they are already facing some of the most extensive consequences.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5kbiyy">
Many of the changes they’re enduring are beyond their means. So at the COP28 climate change summit, the top priority for these countries is to get more money to cope with ongoing devastation and to prepare for the bigger threats that lie ahead.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A worker fumigates a house against the Aedes aegypti mosquito to prevent the spread of dengue fever in a neighborhood in Piura, northern Peru, on June 11, 2023." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UxlSBlvvTM-zSpvZszCLhZdaWR4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25143311/GettyImages_1258609962.jpeg"/> <cite>Ernesto Benavides/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Sanitation workers across Peru fumigated homes this year to control the mosquitos that spread dengue as the country contends with a severe outbreak.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T96hQM">
Though the meeting is still underway, delegates agreed to begin putting money into a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/loss-damageclimate-change-f21ae7bd95112acc403ff768d00f67f0">loss and damage fund</a> aimed at compensating countries already facing the impacts of climate change, with at least $420 million pledged so far. Just creating this fund was a hard-fought process as many wealthy countries opposed any hint that they were liable for the harms generated by their appetite for fossil fuels.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W2MFJs">
But pledges on paper don’t guarantee they will be fulfilled. Countries are already struggling to meet past cash commitments. In past climate negotiations, governments promised to pool <a href="https://www.oecd.org/climate-change/finance-usd-100-billion-goal/">$100 billion per year</a> to finance adaptation projects in less wealthy places, but they blew past their <a href="https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/climate_finance_report.pdf">2020 deadline</a>. According to some estimates, countries finally <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/sustainable-finance-reporting/rich-countries-may-have-met-100-bln-climate-goal-last-year-oecd-2023-11-16/">met this goal last year,</a> but groups like <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/rich-countries-continued-failure-honor-their-100-billon-climate-finance-promise">Oxfam</a> say they’re still nowhere close and the actual amount of money spent under this program was $24.5 billion per year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lWSCa1">
These shortfalls are troubling not only because it means people in some of the most vulnerable regions will have a harder time adapting to climate change, but also because it makes it harder to solve the problem overall. To limit climate change, at any level, every country in the world will eventually have to zero out their greenhouse gas emissions. Without outside help, developing countries may choose to <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/23458617/cop27-fossil-fuels-energy-developing-countries-coal-oil-gas-africa-finance">prioritize burning coal, oil, and natural gas</a> to bolster their economies in the near term, slowing the campaign to decarbonize the global <a href="https://www.vox.com/economy">economy</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v72eBU">
The stakes are higher than ever, and at the tail end of the hottest year humanity has ever experienced, the consequences of uncontrolled climate change have never been more vivid. The question is whether the soaked, parched, and baked landscapes in El Niño’s direct line of fire will spur any more action at the table in the UAE.
</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Chagall, Ascoval, Royal Mysore and Krystallos shine</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Emerald Queen, Enabler, Etoile and Spanish Eyes show out</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I-T raids ex-IFA secretary’s premises over financial irregularities in liquor trade</strong> - “Our officers are speaking with Ganguly and scrutinising documents related to the trade of IMFL (Indian-made Foreign Liquor) with which he was associated,” the official said.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Asad Shafiq announces retirement from all forms of cricket, set to become Pakistan selector</strong> - ‘I am not feeling the same excitement and passion playing cricket and neither do I have the same fitness levels required for international cricket. Which is why I have decided to say goodbye to all cricket’</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IND vs ENG T20Is | Shreyanka and Saika spin a web around Knight’s England</strong> - The two scalp three each to bundle out the visitors for 126; Smriti gets going, orchestrates the run chase</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Govt defends change in NMC logo, says it is part of India’s heritage</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>‘Nandi Natakotsavalu’ to begin in Guntur from December 23</strong> - As many as 38 drama societies from across the State are participating in the event which is to be held in five categories, says Posani Krishna Murali</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Armies of India, Vietnam begin 11-day military exercise in Hanoi</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mobile app-based beat system to be introduced to protect Karnataka government land from encroachment</strong> - The Minister informed the Assembly while replying to Congress member Vinay Kulkarni during Question Hour on December 11</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>17-year-old brought to NIMHANS in Bengaluru for treatment of mobile addiction escapes</strong> - The family searched for him in the hospital premises before approaching the police for help</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Zelensky’s intense-looking chat with Hungary’s Orban</strong> - His exchange with the man threatening to block Ukraine’s EU aspirations comes ahead of a visit to the US.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Paris Ritz: Missing €750k ring found in hotel vacuum bag</strong> - The owner has said she left the ring on a table in her hotel room but when she returned it was gone.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>UK to give two Royal Navy minehunter ships to Ukraine</strong> - It forms part of a wider effort to bolster Ukraine’s abilities at sea, as the war with Russia continues.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Poland’s popcorn moment as pro-EU leader Tusk returns to power</strong> - Judges, journalists and women’s groups watch as Poland’s Donald Tusk inches closer to power.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Aleksandar Vucic: The man who remade Serbia</strong> - Aleksandar Vucic has dominated Serbian politics but rivals see elections as a first step in removing him.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ULA chief says Vulcan rocket will slip to 2024 after ground system issues</strong> - The Colorado-based launch company will end 2023 with just three launches. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1989907">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Apple blocked Beeper Mini’s iMessage Android app, but Beeper will keep pushing</strong> - Co-founder denies Apple’s claims of security and privacy concerns for its users. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1989830">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why scientists are making transparent wood</strong> - The material is being exploited for smartphone screens, insulated windows, and more. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1989784">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A locally grown solution for period poverty</strong> - A Kenyan tinkerer and Stanford engineer team up to make maxi pads from agave fibers. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1989671">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The quest to turn basalt dust into a viable climate solution</strong> - Sprinkling rock dust on farmland to soak up atmospheric carbon will be tested at large scale. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1989752">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bartender walks into a church</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A bartender walks into the Catholic church around the corner and enters the confessional. The window slides open and the bartender says, “Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It’s been 15 years since my last confession.” The priest says, “And how have you sinned my son?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The bartender says, “I have betrayed the sacred obligation of my craft, which is to listen with an open heart to the woes of others and to offer solace and wise counsel. I have been listening to people’s troubles for so long, I just can’t do it any more, so lately I have been pretending to listen and responding automatically with rote platitudes. I feel so guilty. I don’t know what to do.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
After a long silence, the bartender said, “Father? Are you there?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Sorry, what was that again?”
</p>
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/regrettablyold"> /u/regrettablyold </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18fg7q9/bartender_walks_into_a_church/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18fg7q9/bartender_walks_into_a_church/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Three Man are going to get locked away for 10 years.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Food and drink are provided, but they can wish for something to entertain themselfs.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
1st Man:“I want 10 Woman with me.”
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Granted they lock him up.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
2nd Man:“Give me 10.000 gallons of Beer.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Granted they lock him up.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
3rd Man:“Give me 50.000 packs of Zigarettes.”
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Granted they lock him up.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
10 Years later.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
They open the First Door and a bunch of Kids walk out.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
They open the Second door and the Man is still Drunk.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
They open the Third Door, the Man sits there and says:“You Forgot to give me a Lighter !!!”
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Wolfguard087"> /u/Wolfguard087 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18fr4sv/three_man_are_going_to_get_locked_away_for_10/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18fr4sv/three_man_are_going_to_get_locked_away_for_10/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man comes to a brothel.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">And asks for something really exotic to surprise him.</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">They point him to a room. He enters it and sees a box on the bed. He opens it, and inside is some strange smooth pink ball.</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">The man starts turning it in his hands:</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">How am I supposed to fuck you? How am I supposed to fuck you?
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The ball suddenly speaks:
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">No, don’t fuck me, don’t fuck me!
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The man (keeps turning it in his hands):
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Where did you say it from? Where did you say it from?
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
</li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></div>
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submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Omeganian"> /u/Omeganian </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18f9klb/a_man_comes_to_a_brothel/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18f9klb/a_man_comes_to_a_brothel/">[comments]</a></span></li>
</ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>[NSFW]What do women say when they see a really big dick?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Yeah, I figured none of you would know either.
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/iamluciferscousin667"> /u/iamluciferscousin667 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18f5p2e/nsfwwhat_do_women_say_when_they_see_a_really_big/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18f5p2e/nsfwwhat_do_women_say_when_they_see_a_really_big/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man is on a business trip in Romania</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A man is on a business trip in Romania and figures to visit a local brothel. He walks in through the doors up to the madam and asks if anyone is available.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The madam says “We don’t have women and we don’t have men, but we have a badger.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Huh?” grunts the man in confusion, but then thinks about it a little bit and then decides to take the badger, if they have nothing else.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He spends the night, has breakfasts and thanks everyone on the way out, and goes on with his life.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Then years later life brings him back to Romania, where he figures, familiar faces and all, he’ll go and see how that brothel is doing. Walks in, heads straight for the madam and asks if anyone is available.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The madam says “We don’t have women, and we don’t have men, but we have a video: man and badger.”
</p>
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/AnotherManDown"> /u/AnotherManDown </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18fg9m2/a_man_is_on_a_business_trip_in_romania/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18fg9m2/a_man_is_on_a_business_trip_in_romania/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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